We heard about the flooding, the stoning, the gladiators in the Coliseum. I was standing right where these people had stood...where people were seen dying...and the whole moment suddenly smacked me in the face...

It's more than stories. Carved into those fading stones was more than the ravages of time...it was the death of reality. And I could feel it. I stood there, fulling participating in the replacement of reality with storytelling. I was a part of that cycle...death, life, and now, afterlife...

My friend bought a book, probably intended for schoolchildren, which had pictures of the orignal buildings on a piece of plastic. When you turned the plastic sheet over it revealed the buildings as they are now...stately in their morose existence. I wanted to cry when I saw that because it's more than that. They didn't just crumble. Nothing ever just crumbles. It fades and when it fades, you can feel a part of you being ripped away and you don't want to stop it because you know what will be left will be nothing short of complete...complete decadance, complete heartache, whatever...it lacks nothing when it fades.

I saw a great civilization summed up in a few old pieces of stone...I felt death and beauty collide in eternity.